This was my Master’s thesis! We piloted the first iteration of the online First-year writing (FYW) course with this Master’s in 2018. We got it running smooth as butter just in time for COVID to force everyone online. Great timing for an unfortunate turn of events.
Anyway, here is the abstract:
Online Writing Instruction (OWI) programs, like online learning classes in general, are becoming more popular in post-secondary education. Yet few articles discuss how to tailor course assessment methods to an exclusively online environment. This thesis explores video analytics as a possible course assessment tool for online writing classrooms. Video analytics allow instructors, course designers, and writing program administrators to view how many students are engaging in video-based course materials. Additionally, video analytics can provide information about how active students are in their data-finding methods while they watch. By means of example, this thesis examines video analytics from one semester of a large western university’s online first-year writing sections (n=283). This study finds that video analytics afford stakeholders knowledge of patterns in how students interact with video-based course materials. Assuming the end goal of course assessment is to provide meaningful insight that will help improve student and teacher experience, video analytics can be a powerful, dynamic course assessment tool.